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Rocket Barrage Fired From Gaza Toward Israel; IDF Declares "State of War Alert"; U.S. President Joe Biden Criticized For Border Wall Construction; Amazon Launches First Internet Satellites. Aired 5- 6a ET
Aired October 07, 2023 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. I want to get to our breaking news this hour.
Israel is retaliating swiftly and with force against Hamas at this hour, targeting sites in Gaza and engaging the militants on multiple fronts. As the prime minister said a short time ago quote, "We are at war."
Now this after an hours-long barrage of rockets took the country by surprise and set off sirens as far as away as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Casualties have been reported. It's worth noting this is the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war in 1973.
Most alarming for Israelis near Gaza are confirmed reports of militants infiltrating Israeli territory. Hadas Gold joins us from Jerusalem.
The scale, the coordination of these attacks, what we're seeing now, it's just extraordinary.
What's the latest there?
HADAS GOLD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The latest is the prime minister declaring this is a state of war. He's saying in an address to the people of Israel in just the last half hour, "Citizens of Israel, we are at war. Not an operation, not in rounds, at war."
The Israeli military chief of staff also distributing an address to the citizens of Israel, saying the Israeli military is essentially flooding the zone around Gaza because of these infiltrations. That's been the most alarming aspect of this.
Yes, the number of rockets is very, very high. I mean, it's some of the highest I have seen in recent years. Yes, they have been reaching far. Here in Jerusalem, we have had to seek shelter. And just here in our offices, at least five times because of various air raid sirens. We have been hearing explosions in the sky which could be
interceptions, impacts. But it's the infiltrations that are the most alarming. We do have reports in the Israeli media of Israeli soldiers and/or civilians being kidnapped. We have not confirmed those ourselves.
Those are being reported in the Israeli media but those have been kidnaps likely from along the border with Gaza or from the settlement villages within the area around Gaza. What we have confirmed from the Israeli military regarding those infiltrations is they came in from the sky, paragliders, from the ground and sea.
There's ongoing fighting, as we speak, on the ground in several villages and two army bases and the border station at the crossing in the northern part of Gaza, between militants and Israeli security officials. So that's why you hear Israeli military saying that they are flooding the zone to get to those people.
As we're reporting live, we're hearing people calling in from these villages, saying that I'm inside my bomb shelter. I can hear gunfire and knocks on my door. Please come help me.
In terms of the rockets, the Israeli military is saying 2,000 rockets have been fired since 6:30 this morning. That's about six hours ago. In 2011, during that 11-day war, there was 4,300 rockets. We have already passed 2,000 just in a few hours to give you a sense of the scale of how many rockets have been fired.
In terms of injuries, we have confirmed from hospitals, there's at least 140 injuries have been brought to hospital. We at least know 20 those are considered serious. We know of several fatalities, including the head of one of the regional councils in the south, who according to his regional council, he was killed while in an active firefight with militants.
So it's not clear among the injuries whether those are from injuries from rocket fire and shrapnel, whether from militant fire because we have been seeing videos of pickup trucks with militants in the beds of those pickup trucks, just firing as they go down the street.
Militants on the streets as well firing. And as we heard from the Israeli military, there are ongoing firefights in several of these villages as well as army bases, as well as the border crossing.
A completely unprecedented state of war for Israel, something they have not seen. And also the timing is so significant here. Once again, 50 years ago to the day, Israel was surprised with the Yom Kippur war in a surprise attack on a holiday.
It is a holiday today. It's also a Saturday, Shabbat. So a lot of people who are religious would be in synagogue. And so the parallels are incredibly striking.
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GOLD: Hamas has called this operation the Al-Aqsa Storm, linking this to events at Al-Aqsa.
But what has been interesting is, while there's been tensions at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, also known as Temple Mount to Jews, a place so holy, so hotly contested by both religions, there hasn't been any sort of major flare-up.
No major Israeli police action or anything like that to signal that something could be happening. That's why this is such a surprise. Bibi Netanyahu said himself it was a surprise.
So there will be a the lot of questions not only just how was Israel not better prepared but also how did all of these militants get in?
Were they already in Israel because thousands of Palestinians enter on a daily basis with permits to work?
Did they come from the West Bank?
How did this all happen?
Another major question is whether other fronts will get involved as well, especially the north and especially Hezbollah. If Hezbollah get involved in the north, that puts this is on a whole different level.
BRUNHUBER: I mean, you talked about the surprise here. Certainly, people must be shocked to be waking up to this. A couple hours ago, such large scale rocket attacks and especially seeing the images of people, attackers driving through the streets armed. It must be terrifying.
What is the mood there among Israelis now?
GOLD: It's a lot of shock. It's shock this is happening.
It's questioning, how did the Israeli military and Israeli intelligence allow this to happen?
What's really striking for the everyday Israeli, as they are watching the news, is getting live calls from people in the south, who are hiding in their safe rooms, who are hearing this happening on the streets in front of them, who are reporting terrible things.
We want to confirm those before we bring them on air. But this is incredibly shocking for them. And that's why you hear the parallels to the Yom Kippur War because that's what happened, the holiest day for Jews during the year. And they were surprised in the same way.
There was a bit of disbelief back then this was happening. Not as much this time but there was a the lot of shock and fear from Israelis about what will happen now, how far into Israel have these militants got, because Hamas is calling on all Palestinians across Gaza, across the West Bank, across Jerusalem, to rise up.
They're saying grab your guns, your axes, your cars and any way you want and join our war. Join our war against Israel. I think that will be a major issue if we begin to see what we're seeing with those infiltrations in those Israeli villages. If we see it across other parts of Israel, that's a major issue in addition to the rocket attacks.
BRUNHUBER: All right, we'll get back to you in a little bit for updates. Hadas Gold in Jerusalem, thank you so much for that. Appreciate it.
We want to go Avi Melamed, the founder of the Inside the Middle East Institute.
Thank you so much for joining us here. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying, quote, "We are at war."
The symbolism of the timing here, 50 years pretty much to the day of the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
AVI MELAMED, FOUNDER, INSIDE THE MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE: Yes, thank you for having me.
You are correct. In many ways, there's a similarity between the two events. By the way, this is not the only similarity. There are other aspects that are like a common denominator when you think about the two different events.
I would like to provide a couple of insights, trying to put this whole situation into a wider perspective. From a military perspective, we are looking at a war that was orchestrated and organized and planned for a long period of time.
And of course, the biggest question in their perspective is, is this war the first phase toward a multifront war?
Particularly when you are talking about Hezbollah in Lebanon, all eyes (ph) also have to be very closely on Lebanon. In that regard, I would like to add a strategic dimension. We have to think about the Iranian hegemonic vision plan. It's part of the plan in which Hamas and Islamic Jihad plays a very significant role.
They are trying to establish what we call the Ring of Fire; namely, surrounding Israel from three different arenas -- Lebanon, Syria and Gaza Strip -- with militants and proxies that are supposed to attack simultaneously the state of Israel.
What we saw this morning is that one of those arena, Gaza Strip, was activated. Obviously the biggest question to follow in the next couple days, are we going to see the flare-up of the Lebanese or maybe Syrian arena?
In addition to that, the issue of the Palestinian Territories in the West Bank --
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MELAMED: -- and areas within Israel populated by mixed population Jews and Israelis.
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MELAMED: This is one insight I want to share.
BRUNHUBER: That's one of the questions I wanted to ask you. Our reporter Hadas raised that. Israeli authorities seem to be caught by surprise here. You're a former Israel intelligence official. This seems to represent a huge intelligence failure.
MELAMED: Definitely. At this point, even though we're in a preliminary stage, it's clear that Israel's major strategy in the context of defending this volatile area surrounding Gaza, that strategy basically failed.
What we see right now is a manifestation of Israel's worst scenario, where militants are actually taking over parts of communities and civilians in the Gaza Strip. So in that sense, definitely.
And as I said, there are many other aspects that have to be asked in that regard. But with your permission, I would like to go back and provide additional insights and observations.
I was talking about the military perspective and the Iranian master plan of the Ring of Fire. There's another interesting perspective.
That goes to the question, why did Hamas launch that war?
One different aspect is the fact that Hamas has been struggling for an ongoing period of time and it's been accumulative of criticism of people in Gaza Strip over Hamas. In the last couple months, there's been some relief because Israel enabled more and more people to go and to work in Israel. So this is one interesting aspect.
The other interesting aspect has to be viewed in the context of the power struggle between Hamas on the one hand and Palestinian Authority on the other end. Hamas goes to be the leader of the Palestinian. And as part of its ideology, Hamas goes to military action.
It basically says the only way to bring Israel down is through military use of power. In that sense, Hamas basically is -- basically say or do what he always say, hopefully Hamas basically hope that will gain him a credit within the Palestinian public opinion and so on.
There's another interesting aspect regarding the question, why did Hamas wage that war?
That has to be looked in the context of the normalization and particularly the recent talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia and the reports about it brewing sort of like peace agreement or agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Now I'm taking it to the Palestinian perspective. In the Palestinian arena, there is a growing discontent. The Palestinians are feeling that the Arab world, the brothers are abandoning them. And basically, the Palestinian says Saudi Arabia is the last one to defend us.
If the Saudis are going to join the process with Israel, it means that we have totally been thrown under the bus. What Hamas likely did here is actually sending a message to the regime, saying the Palestinians are not going to be excluded.
The Palestinians have a say and they have the ability to impact the trajectory of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and no one could ignore that war. So I think these are a couple things to look at when we ask ourselves, why did Hamas wage that war, because it is a war.
And particularly, when you look at the most significant question at this point regarding that, what is going to be Israel's response?
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BRUNHUBER: Let me ask you about that because that's exactly where I want to go. I appreciate your perspective on the interpretation of the Hamas' motives here. But I want to ask about Israel's response. The cabinet meeting I think in an hour.
What are the options do you think in terms of their response and how might that be complicated if Israelis have been captured?
MELAMED: Israel is currently in a major dilemma. On the one hand, you have a government in Israel, reminding you, a large part of this government or vocal part of this government are coming from the more extreme right-wing factors. They clearly put a pressure on the Israeli government to take over Gaza Strip and reoccupy Gaza Strip.
The question is what will be the other positions of other parts of the Israeli government and the Israeli intelligence and security community. We are looking at (INAUDIBLE) because Israel, after this war, following the initiation of this war with Hamas --
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MELAMED: -- it cannot go back to the old same story of the military rounds because, as of now, Hamas won its biggest strategic achievement ever. He basically was able to screen a picture where he was taking control over Israeli communities, apparently taking control of holding some Israelis as hostages.
Now that goes back to the Israeli government. And one of the things that we have to ask ourselves, is Israel going to launch a massive military operation actually, basically taking that specific situation as a point where Israel is now actively changing the reality that was formed in the Gaza Strip, since 2007, when Hamas took over the strip?
I would not exclude that scenario. It's very possible that we will witness a massive Israeli ground operation in Gaza Strip, that basically will aim to try and to change totally from the ground the conditions that have been prevailed for the last almost two decades.
This is a pivotal moment. We have to look and see what will be the scale and the volume of Israeli retaliation and response. We have to look whether it's going to evolve in expanding of this war to other arenas. We are looking at critical hours, critical days, definitely. This story has regional ramifications, not only domestic ones.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely true. We are out of time but appreciate your analysis. Avi Melamed, thank you so much.
MELAMED: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
BRUNHUBER: We'll be right back.
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BRUNHUBER: We want to get back to our breaking news. Israel is carrying out military strikes against Hamas in Gaza after the group launched a surprise attack early Saturday. Hamas militants are claiming to have fired 5,000 rockets, targeting airports and military positions.
Israeli officials say at least one person has died and at least 100 people have been injured. Israel's military says it will mobilize thousands of reservists to take on Hamas.
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BRUNHUBER: Joining me now is Daniel Levy, president of the U.S. / Middle East Project.
Thank you so much for being here with us. I want to start with your reaction to the unprecedented events we're seeing right now.
DANIEL LEVY, PRESIDENT, U.S. / MIDDLE EAST PROJECT: I think the first thing to note is this element of surprise and the really staggering success in that respect by the Palestinian movements who launched this military effort.
I think that will over time play very badly in Israel. I think there was a sense of hubris, that you could keep the Palestinians in these conditions and not have these kinds of resistance actions.
I think the immediate thing is the Israeli Jewish community, the political parties, the representatives come around unified. But I think ultimately this will play into an already deep polarization inside Israel.
I think this, whatever happens next, will be considered a significant success for those Palestinian movements. It's not clear what happens next. It would be surprising if the Israeli response in Gaza did not also include a ground operation.
I think this comes at a time where we would have the most extreme government in Israel, endless provocations. You also have what feels like a quite fragile, weak internal Israeli environment and I think the Palestinian side have looked at that, those Palestinian movements who've launched this.
They have looked at the situation in Jerusalem. That resonates not only with Palestinians but far beyond. They've looked at issues like how Palestinian prisoners have been treated. They have looked at the normalization talks.
And this has been the response. And I think it's also an important reminder, as your viewers are realizing this morning, that really the issue in the Middle East isn't whether Israel and Saudi Arabia, who are not at war with each other, normalize or not.
The issue is what happens on Palestinian front. So many decades of occupation, there will not be security quiet instability. As long as the Palestinians don't have their rights and their freedoms.
We've been reminded of this. It also comes on the 50th anniversary of the last time Israeli intelligence had a huge failure, which was the 1973 war with Egypt, the Yom Kippur War. And so I think that will play into the Israeli psyche and into the analysis coming out of Israel this morning and in the coming days.
BRUNHUBER: In these attacks, we know Israelis, at least one, have been killed, many injured; some possibly kidnapped. We're still looking into those reports.
But when we look at the Israeli response, especially if we might see a ground operation is in Gaza, often we see innocent Palestinian civilians losing their homes, sometimes losing their lives.
What will the cost be, do you think?
LEVY: Well, I think you're absolutely right to point that out. I think the variable that may be most significant in the Israeli side of the equation from what you just mentioned is whether there are indeed live Israelis who have been taken prisoner in Gaza, which also impacts what kind of reaction Israel can undertake.
Let's remember the basic dynamics here. Gaza, home to over 2 million Palestinians, many of whom were driven out of Israel in 1948, in the Nakba, refugees. The majority of whom, refugees, living for decades now, coming on to two decades in what is essentially a blockade, a siege, an open-air prison.
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LEVY: We have seen several iterations during that time of disproportionate strikes by Israel, waves of -- Israel, of course, has the sophisticated weaponry. And what we have seen on so many occasions is devastation, massive civilian loss.
Of course, massive loss to housing, to infrastructure, to schools on the Palestinian side. And unfortunately, we can expect that again. But daily life for Palestinians in Gaza and throughout the areas controlled by Israel, is one that is not normal. So Israelis are waking up to a very abnormal situation. But it's an
abnormality that Palestinians live with all the time. It's just a question of what is the extremity of that. And in May of 2021, when there was the last major escalation, you saw what the Palestinians called the unity intifada. And you saw popular expressions of opposition to Israel, inside Israel, on the streets of Israel, in mixed town. You saw it inside the West Bank.
So I think one of the real questions is whether we will see that again during the coming days.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, so much still unknown. It's early morning still here on the U.S. East Coast. We haven't heard from the Biden administration on this.
What do you think the U.S. response will be or should be?
LEVY: I fear there is a significant gulf between the answer to those two questions, what it will be and what it should be. I think what it will be is predictable, which will be standing in solidarity with Israel, recognizing what they will call Israel's right to defend itself, never recognizing the Palestinian right to resist an illegal occupation and a permanent siege and blockade. So I think that's one thing we'll see.
The other thing that will be missing is an appreciation that you cannot keep people under permanent conditions of inhumane, immoral but also illegal occupation and not expect something like this, not expect there to be insecurity for the party that is doing that to the Palestinians.
And I think the rest of the world may look at this. I mean, look at the inadequate American response, to say, wait a minute. In one place, you celebrate resistance. You celebrate people taking up arms against an invasion, which is correctly considered to be illegal. That's in Ukraine.
And in this other place, you run cover for the people who are doing the illegal occupation.
And I think in the parts of the world that have woken up already and some that are also yet to wake up, they will see this as another example of the very selective American application of the standards it is claiming to uphold in one place and totally negates and undermines in another place.
BRUNHUBER: I'm not sure the parallels are quite equivalent but I do take your point. But we'll have to leave it there. Thank you so much, Daniel Levy. Really appreciate your perspective on this.
LEVY: Thank you, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: All right.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: Israel declares war on militants in Gaza after Hamas launches a surprise attack on Israel and calls for a Palestinian uprising. We'll have a live report just ahead. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching here in the United States and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
Israel is retaliating swiftly and with force against Hamas at this hour, targeting sites in Gaza and engaging on multiple fronts.
As the prime minister said a short time ago, "We are at war."
This after an hours-long barrage of rockets took the country by surprise and set off sirens as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Numerous casualties have been reported. This is also the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
Most alarming for Israelis near Gaza are confirmed reports of militants infiltrating Israeli territory. Sam Kiley is standing by in London. But let's begin our coverage with our Jerusalem correspondent Hadas Gold.
What's the latest?
GOLD: We are just getting updated numbers of casualties. This is according to Israel's emergency services. They say there've been more than 250 injuries. At least 22 of them are dead. These are not final numbers yet. These are high casualty numbers considering this just started 6:30 am this morning, which is this barrage of rocket fire coming from Gaza toward Israel.
We know that thousands of rockets have been fired. To give you context, in that 2021 11-day war, it was considered a large operation and there was 4,300 rockets fired in total. Now we are nearing that number and we haven't even reached 24 hours yet.
Most alarming are the infiltrations. We have seen videos of militants on pickup trucks in these Israeli villages. We have seen videos of militants on the streets of Israel. We are getting reports of Israeli citizens in their houses, saying they are hearing the gunfire just outside their homes.
The Israeli military confirming there have been ongoing firefights in several Israeli villages in the south, including two army bases and one of the border crossings. We have seen reports of soldiers and/or civilians being captured and kidnapped.
There's a video published of an Israeli tank along the Gaza border fence, showing Palestinian gunmen dragging out an Israeli soldier. We have also seen videos in Gaza and our producer has seen it with his own eyes, of Israeli military vehicles that have been taken by militants driving into Gaza.
The Israeli military has not confirmed or commented on any sort of soldiers or civilians being kidnapped or killed. What we have right now are the casualty numbers from the emergency services of people within Israel.
That's 250 injured, more than 22 of them killed. What is also not clear is how many of those injuries are from rockets or militant fire. We know some of them, including the head of one of the regional councils in the south --
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GOLD: -- was killed by militant gunfire while engaging with them on the streets. This is a very fluid, ongoing situation. We're watching the Israeli news channels right now, where they are just getting reports, live calls from people who are sheltering in place in these communities, in the south, with fear of these militants entering.
The Israeli military is saying some of them entered Israel by paragliding in, by sea and by foot. The rockets also have been far- reaching, as far as where we are in Jerusalem. I counted six rounds of sirens and heard multiple explosions in the sky. Very fluid ongoing situation, the likes of which Israel has not seen in 50 years.
BRUNHUBER: You're bringing us some new and disturbing details there. Hadas Gold in Jerusalem, thank you so much.
I want to bring in CNN's Sam Kiley, who is in London.
Sam, you've covered the region extensively. I want to get your analysis of what you're seeing now, what strikes you about the attack, about the response and what it could mean going forward.
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's on the historic significance of this, this historic intelligence failure by the Israelis, because this is a situation that has not been seen since the Israelis were effectively ambushed by the Arab world in 1973, 50 years almost to the day in the Yom Kippur War, when that surprise attack was launched.
Now Hamas has used a cover they claim of 5,000 rockets. The IDF are saying some 2,000 rockets or more are being fired all the time to launch this complex attack from the sea, from the air, infiltrating with paragliders and then on foot.
We have seen images of breaks in the Gaza fence and Hamas operatives and other militants entering Israel on motorbikes.
Now they are able -- by being able to infiltrate and effectively now conduct hostage-taking operations, potentially, there's some reports, including from my own sources within the IDF, that they fear there are hostages and dead bodies that have been taken into Gaza territory. We have seen the destruction of a Markova tank. That is about one of
the most sophisticated tanks on the planet, very sophisticated Israeli piece of heavy armor, falling to militants on or close to the border fence there in Gaza.
And a Humvee being driven through the streets, all of that combining as an attempt by Muhammad Al-Deif, the leader of the Hamas military wing, inside the strip to make a call to arms right across the Middle East but in particular, trying now to cause a forest fire effectively in militant activity on the West Bank and then perhaps ultimately among ethnic Palestinians who are citizens inside Israel itself.
Where the Knesset has reported three years ago that some 400,000 weapons are in the hands of ethnic Palestinians inside Israel. If that combines to set off this chain reaction, then Israel will be very much on the back foot at a time when there will be extreme pressure, particularly from Israel's Right. And it is the right wing that dominate the government in Israel, on the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to launch a very severe counterattack inside Gaza, possibly aimed to try to rid the Gaza Strip of Hamas altogether.
But as we have been hearing from Daniel Levy a few moments ago and other critics on the Right within Israel, this is seen particularly by the Israeli Left as an inevitable consequence of bottling up Palestinian hopes inside enclaves like Gaza.
But the real aim of the Palestinians here is to try to cause this chain reaction, an uprising on the West Bank, inside Israel itself, with the ultimate aim perhaps that this would be the doomsday scenario of involving Hezbollah out of Lebanon.
That I think at the moment is a distant prospect. The next 48 hours and how Israel responds will define this. But it is absolutely unprecedented to see infiltration on this scale, effectively infantry infiltration of towns reportedly, like Sderot, where we have seen a number of civilians that have been killed at a bus stop.
There's images of Hamas operatives driving around in pickup trucks, firing supposedly at random, opening fire on a police vehicle and even being involved in combat near the Sderot police station. This is the biggest town near Gaza. It's some distance from the Gaza Strip itself. There's been infiltration in the kibbutzes close to the Gaza Strip, too.
BRUNHUBER: I want to mention again, we have an updated Israeli death toll now at 22.
Sam Kiley, thank you for your analysis.
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BRUNHUBER: We appreciate it.
And we'll be right back.
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BRUNHUBER: We want to get to our breaking news. Israel is at war after Hamas launched a surprise attack early Saturday. Hamas militants are claimed to have fired some 5,000 rockets targeting airports and military positions.
Israeli officials say at least 22 people have died. More than 250 have been injured. Israel's military says it's carrying out strikes in Gaza and thousands of reservists will be mobilized. We'll have more on this breaking news story the at the top of the hour with "CNN THIS MORNING."
Turning now to news here in the U.S., President Joe Biden is facing criticism for moving forward with the construction of new barriers at the southern border.
Critics say the president's breaking a campaign promise to never build additional border walls. But Biden says he couldn't stop the move because Congress had already earmarked funds to construct the barriers, which will go up amid a rise in migrant crossings.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get them to reappropriate, to redirect that money but they didn't. They wouldn't. And in the meantime, there's nothing under the law, other than they have to use the money for what it was appropriated. I can't stop that.
QUESTION: Do you believe the border wall works?
BIDEN: No.
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BRUNHUBER: We have more details from Priscilla Alvarez in Washington.
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PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Biden came under fierce criticism this week over his administration's decision to build border barriers in south Texas.
Now the president has maintained, along with his officials, that they had to do this because of funds appropriated by Congress in 2019 for the purpose of physical border barriers.
Sources I've spoken with said the administration was essentially running up against a deadline and that they had to use these funds by the end of fiscal year 2023. Now in a notice to the Federal Register this week, the Homeland Security secretary said that he may have to break --
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ALVAREZ: -- more than 20 laws to get this done in an expedited manner.
And that this is also an area of, quote, "high illegal entries." This is going to be up to 20 miles of border barriers. It also includes gates, cameras, access roads and lights. But the Homeland Security secretary maintaining as well this week that this is -- that the border wall is not the response.
The administration's posture on this has not changed. But again, it was necessary because these funds were appropriated by Congress. Of course, all of this, though, putting a politically precarious issue at the forefront and leaving the president to defend barriers which he had previously spoken out against during his campaign.
Of course, this time, he is saying that it is because of those funds that were appropriated before he took office -- Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, Washington.
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BRUNHUBER: Mexico's president has denounced U.S. plans to build new border barriers as a, quote, "publicity stunt" ahead of next year's election. The Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday called the new barriers propaganda to win over voters.
He criticized the politics, saying, "All U.S. presidents, with all due respect, either Republican or Democrat, have done it during their term to look good in the eyes of Americans that, respectfully, don't have all the information." All right. It is full speed ahead for tech giant Amazon. We'll tell
you what they are sending into space and how it could help people on the ground. That story is straight ahead. Stay with us.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Three, two, one, we have ignition and liftoff of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, carrying the prototype (ph) mission for Amazon's Project Kuiper.
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BRUNHUBER: Amazon's plans to build constellations of satellites to blanket the globe in internet connectivity on Friday. The first two prototype satellites of Project Kuiper were launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Now Amazon plans to begin building hundreds more satellites, eventually building a network of 3,200 to circle the globe and beam internet connectivity to the ground. Here's what a Kuiper Project executive had to say about the mission.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): About half the world's population lack connectivity or access to good connectivity. And we know what a difference that internet connectivity can make in people's lives, access to shopping, access to health care, access to education.
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BRUNHUBER: For more on this, I'm joined by Tim Farrar. He's president of TMF Associates.
Thank you so much for being here with us. So we're still a ways away from logging on to Amazon internet. There have been setbacks along the road when the rockets that were supposed to be traveling on exploded. It shows how hard this is technically to do.
So going forward, what are some of the biggest challenges still ahead in terms of trying to set up this constellation?
TIM FARRAR, TECHNOLOGY CONSULTANT AND PRESIDENT, TMF ASSOCIATES: Amazon has a long way to go. It's trying to launch over 3,000 satellites. That's going to take an awful long time. There are dozens of launches.
And the rockets need to be ready to launch those satellites as well as the satellites being manufactured, which is also going to take at least two or three years to complete all of that.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. And of course, Elon Musk's Starlink has thousands of satellites already in space.
So how significant is this competition going to be for Amazon?
FARRAR: Well, Amazon has got a long way to go. Starlink has been in full commercial service for about two years. So Starlink is going to have something like a five year lead by the time Amazon comes to market.
And it has got billions of dollars of revenue and millions of subscribers already. So that is a lot to catch up on. Amazon has got a lot of resources that it can (INAUDIBLE) but, still, you know, it's going to be a challenge.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, a five year lead.
Is that too far back to catch up, do you think? FARRAR: Well, it really depends on how big this market is. Elon Musk has said he might get tens of millions of subscribers around the world. Some analysts are even more optimistic than that. But to date, he only has got a couple of million customers.
If that market doesn't increase very fast, there won't be many customers left for Amazon to capture.
BRUNHUBER: Who would these customers, these subscribers be, exactly?
FARRAR: Well, the biggest share of those is going to come from consumers who are in remote areas or in places where they can't get broadband internet from wireless or fiber.
There's going to be other customers, as well, in terms of ships, planes, oil rigs, government customers. We have seen Starlink have great success in Ukraine as a source of capacity to help the forces there doing the war.
So there's a lot of opportunity here but it's going to come down to whether there's a big enough consumer market. That's really going to contain the bulk of their customer base and their revenues as well.
BRUNHUBER: You mentioned Ukraine. Starlink has been vital for Ukraine's war efforts in terms of providing that digital lifeline. But there's been a lot of hand wringing about so much power being wielded by one man, who can literally decide where and when Ukraine gets this access.
Do you think Amazon would provide a military alternative in cases like this?
FARRAR: I think that's what the government has got to be hoping for, is they will have a choice of providers. That will give them more leverage in terms of the conditions under which those services are supplied.
They really don't like it if one person can turn off the satellite system and deny access. Having a choice is always better. And hopefully, Amazon will be able to provide that.
BRUNHUBER: We have been talking about one person, Elon Musk. This rivalry between the two companies --
[05:55:00]
BRUNHUBER: -- between Amazon and Elon Musk's Starlink, how much of this competition do you think is personal between these two men?
FARRAR: I think there is a lot of personal rivalry. They started with rockets and now they have it in satellites. I don't think Bezos wants to see Musk win. So he's going to keep pushing very hard.
BRUNHUBER: Finally, sort of big picture here, there's so many satellite constellations up there already.
How do we manage the traffic without collisions and so forth?
FARRAR: It really depends on how big the market is. That will be what determines how many satellites are launched. We've heard about hundreds of thousands of satellites or possibly more being launched, the market probably isn't big enough to support all those.
So at some point, the music will stop. People will perhaps return to reality and realize what the size of this market is and hopefully that will happen before we get too carried away.
BRUNHUBER: It's fascinating, all the possibilities that are still out there that we're still exploring. We'll have to leave it there. Tim Farrar, thank you for being here with us.
FARRAR: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: That wraps this hour of "CNN NEWSROOM." I'm Kim Brunhuber. We'll have more breaking news from Israel on "CNN THIS MORNING," next.
